Henrik Bülow owes Philippa 200 marks
DN 8/295 · 4 Novbr. 1435 · Stockholm
What the letter says
In Stockholm on the Friday before Martinmas, 4 November 1435, Henrik Bülow acknowledges that he owes the well-born woman Mistress Philippa, Count Hans's daughter, 200 marks in ready Swedish money. He promises to pay the sum on St Martin's Day two years hence, without hindrance or evasion. Sir Torleiv, dean of the cathedral in Bergen, and the well-born man Ficke Bülow set their seals to the letter as witnesses together with Henrik.
The letter in modern English
All good men who hear or see this letter: I, Henrik Bülow, acknowledge by this my present open letter that I rightly and manifestly owe the well-born woman Mistress Philippa, Count Hans's daughter, two hundred marks in ready Swedish money. That sum of money I have promised to pay out on St Martin's Day two years from now, without any hindrance or evasion. For greater certainty and safer keeping I have hung my seal to this letter. I have also asked the discreet men Sir Torleiv, dean of the cathedral in Bergen, and the well-born man Ficke Bülow that they too hang their seals to this letter as witness. Given in Stockholm in the year of our Lord 1435, on the Friday before the day of the holy Bishop Martin. [Endorsement on the back, in a 16th-century hand: «Letter for 200 marks Swedish that Henrik Bülow owed Lady Philippa».]
Original text
Alle the godhe men thetta breff høra eller see kennes jak Henrik Bilo j thesso mino nerwarende vpnæ brefue mik aff rætta witerligha schuld gældskyldughan wara welborne quinno hustrv Philippæ greue Hanse dotter [ij] hundrat mark redha swenska peningæ huilka forda peninga summa jak hafuer lofuat wt at gifua nw sancti Martins dagh tw aar till vtan alt hinder eller helparædhe. Till meere wisso oc høghre forwaring hafuer jak hæncht mit incigle fore thetta breff.
Background
Philippa of Eberstein (died 1477) was the daughter of Count Hans of Eberstein and married Sigurd Jonsson, who had won Giske in the inheritance dispute in 1425. The letter calls her only Count Hans's daughter, and it does not show whether she was already married to Sigurd. Count Hans was a German nobleman who for a time held Gripsholm in Sweden in pledge from the crown. The letter shows that Philippa herself had money to lend, and that she belonged to a Nordic and German aristocracy in which large sums passed between families and allies. Henrik and Ficke Bülow probably belonged to the north German noble family of Bülow. That the dean of Bergen cathedral was a witness in Stockholm shows how close the contacts between the kingdoms were in the union period. The letter survives in a witnessed copy from 1445, and as a widow Philippa later also collected debts in Bergen.
People: Philippa av Eberstein